Rocinante
by justanoutlaw
Summary: When Maleficent and Henry adopt a dog, Regina becomes very protective of the creature.


**This was a prompt submitted to me by littlereddove from a drabble post I reblogged: "Never give him stuff like that!" for Dragon Queen.**

Henry had always wanted a pet of some kind. He had always begged Regina for a kitten or puppy, only to be told no. She was busy with her job and they were a big responsibility. However, once Regina married Maleficent, he somehow ended up conning his step-mother into getting him a puppy. They named the Golden Retriever, Sunny. Regina rolled her eyes at the cliché name, but little by little, the pup wormed his way into her heart.

It became clear that Regina was actually pretty protective of the animal. Maleficent didn't give it much thought at first, she knew that her wife was an animal lover. However, one day caused her to start worrying about her wife.

Belle had stopped by with Gideon in tow to discuss a library event with Maleficent. Gideon became taken with Sunny and started playing with him. Everything was going fine until the toddler reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag of M&Ms. Luckily, Regina had turned around at the right moment, just as Gideon was holding a piece of the chocolate candy out to Sunny. She thrusted her hand out, causing it to disappear from his hand. Gideon looked up in surprise.

"Never give him stuff like that!" Regina lectured him. "Dogs cannot eat chocolate! He could've gotten very sick!"

Maleficent walked over, wrapping an arm around her wife's waist. That wasn't like her, not at all. She was very good with children, some could say that they were even her kryptonite. Gideon was especially one she was always sweet around. Now the toddler had tears in his eyes and she didn't even seem to care. He was too young to know what dogs could and couldn't eat, a gentle reminder would've done the job. Maleficent knew that something else had to be wrong.

Belle collected her son into her arms and mumbled something about calling Maleficent to further discuss the event. She glared at Regina before walking out the door. Maleficent began to rub Regina's back.

"What's going on?" She asked. "Why did you just explode at a 3-year-old?"

"He shouldn't have been trying to give Sunny the chocolate."

"No, he shouldn't have, but he's a little kid. Gideon also almost broke a vase here once and you were kind to him about it. You could've just gently explained it to him."

"Sunny is different than a stupid vase."

Regina knelt next to the dog and stroked his fur. Maleficent sat on the floor next to her, waiting for a few moments before she spoke again.

"What's going on?" Regina remained quiet. "Come on, talk to me."

Regina bit her lip. "I'll go to the Golds tonight and apologize to Belle and Gideon."

"That's fine, but why did you react that way in the first place?"

Regina continued to stare at the dog for a moment, before looking up at Maleficent. "I had this horse, Rocinante. He was my pride and joy, a beautiful horse. He was one of the things that bonded me and Daniel, he lead me to meeting Snow."

Maleficent nodded. She had heard the horse's name mentioned before. "What happened to him?"

"When I needed to cast the dark curse, I needed the heart of the thing I loved the most."

"I thought you sacrificed your father's heart?"

"I did, but he wasn't my first choice." Regina drew a deep breath. "I used Rocinante's. It killed him, but it wasn't enough to cast the curse. At the time, I didn't realize what I had done…" Her voice broke. "It wasn't until years later that I felt the pain from what I had done. I had killed him, I had done a terrible thing."

Maleficent took her hand, squeezing it. "Is this the real reason you told Henry that he couldn't get a pet for so long?"

"I didn't trust myself with animals. I love them, but I was afraid of hurting another. When you got Sunny…I promised myself that I would protect him. Like I should've protected Rocinante."

Maleficent had seen that look in Regina's eyes, the same guilt she had whenever she spoke of the innocent lives that she had taken along the way. This one was a bit different, though. This was one of the things that she had loved the most. She kissed her cheek, pulling her in closer.

"You're doing a great job with Sunny, you're not going to hurt him."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I know you, Regina. You do a great job protecting him. He's not going to be like Rocinante."

Regina let out a deep breath. She stroked Sunny's golden fur, feeling the fuzz go in between her finger nails. She had allowed herself to open her heart enough to let people in, she had done it again to let animals in as well.


End file.
